There exists a well recognized market for manufacturing customized greeting cards including personalized picture images provided by customers. Such greeting cards provide, for example, the opportunity for a customer to include a picture of his family on a holiday greeting card.
One method of producing such customized greeting cards comprises providing a pre-printed card including a cut-out or aperture into which a customer-supplied print can be mounted. A customer then purchases such a card, and inserts his own print into the cut-out. The resulting customized greeting card, however, does not provide a professional appearance. Further, such a greeting card is expensive, requiring a customer to purchase the pre-printed card and to supply a finished photographic print.
Another method of providing such customized greeting cards is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,136,232 to Shoberg et al. The Schoberg et al. reference shows an easel including a contact printer situated on the edge thereof. The easel is used in combination with a photographic printer/enlarger, and functions to support a portion of photographic paper onto which a print is projected. The contact printer is used to print customized artwork. such as a holiday greeting, onto the edge of the photographic paper portion. The result is a customized photographic print including a customer supplied picture image and a selected, customizing artwork.
Schoberg et al. suffers from the disadvantage of requiring the additional contact printer to print the customizing artwork. Such a contact printer is expensive and complex, requiring at a minimum a light source, power, a control mechanism for the light source, and accompanying hardware. The easel taught by Schoberg et al. thus adds significantly to the cost and maintenance of a basic photographic printer.